Forensic anthropologist Aisha Costard has been summoned to Mars to examine skeletal remains recently discovered beneath a building erected by the Disty aliens. The bones belong to a human woman who vanished 30 years ago with her children.

Paloma: A Retrieval Artist Novel

As a Retrieval Artist, Miles Flint helps the Disappeared, saving the lives of those oppressed under the Earth Alliance regime. He owes his livelihood and his very sense of honor to a woman known as Paloma. It was she who was responsible for setting him on this path. And now she has been murdered.

Consequences: A Retrieval Artist Novel

Officer Noelle DeRicci is investigating a murder in Armstrong, the domed colony on the Moon. The victim was one of the Disappeared - outlaws in hiding who are wanted for crimes against alien civilizations - whose family had her brought home, believing she was no longer in danger.

Recovery Man: A Retrieval Artist Novel

On Jupiter's moon, Callisto, a mysterious Recovery Man kidnaps Rhonda Shindo after he terrorizes and then abandons her brilliant 13-year-old daughter, Talia. While authorities on Callisto search for Rhonda, her employers at the Aleyd Corporation try to gain custody of Talia. Somehow, Callisto authorities realize, she's part of the crime, even though she was left behind.

Extremes: A Retrieval Artist Novel

His name: Miles Flint. His occupation: Retrieval Artist. His job: find the Disappeared - outlaws on the run, wanted for crimes against alien cultures. The catch: Flint isn't working on the side of the law anymore.

Duplicate Effort: A Retrieval Artist Novel

Retrieval Artist Miles Flint is on a personal mission - to bring down the corrupt law firm of Wagner, Stuart, and Xender. Then a journalist working with him is murdered, and Miles may be next. But before he can begin to investigate, he has a more personal crisis to deal with - his daughter Talia is missing. Talia - one of six clones of Miles' long-dead child - has gone off to find the other five. As Miles pursues her, he begins to fear that her search for her "sisters" and his for the killer are on a collision course...

The Disappeared: A Retrieval Artist Novel

Retrieval Artists help the lost find their way back home, whether they like it or not. Specialized private detectives, they investigate the most unusual crimes in the galaxy. But Miles Flint isn't a Retrieval Artist. He's just a cop, trying to do his job.

Blowback: Anniversary Day Saga, Book 2 (Retrieval Artist Universe)

The Moon, shaken by the Anniversary Day tragedies, deals with devastation. The Earth Alliance believes another attack imminent, but no one knows where or when it will strike. Just like no one knows who ordered the attacks in the first place. The Moon’s chief security office, Noelle DeRicci, does her best to hold the United Domes government together. But Retrieval Artist Miles Flint, dissatisfied with the investigation into the Anniversary Day events, begins an investigation of his own.

Four years ago, a bomb destroyed part of the dome protecting Armstrong, the largest city on the Moon. Now, as the city celebrates its survival with an event it calls Anniversary Day, a larger threat looms - one that begins with the murder of the mayor, and spreads across the moon itself.

The Impossibles: A Retrieval Artist Short Story: Retrieval Artist Series

To pay off her law school debts, Kerrie works in the public defender's office at the Interspecies Court. She has more clients than she can defend, most of them from cultures she does not understand. The public defender's office loses almost all of its cases, but sometimes it gets a win. Kerrie thinks she has a winner. But does she? Or will winning the case mean she loses at everything else?

A Murder of Clones: Anniversary Day Saga, Book 3 (Retrieval Artist Universe)

The Anniversary Day bombings on the Moon sent shockwaves throughout the Earth Alliance. No one knows who created the clones responsible and turned them into ruthless killers. No one knows where or when they'll strike next. The bombings compel Earth Alliance Frontier Marshall Judita Gomez to launch an unauthorized investigation into a case from her past involving the murder of clones. An investigation that might cost Judita not only her career but the lives of her crew.

Dr. Curmudgeon says:"Required reading if you're already into the series"

The Moon barely survived the devastation of Anniversary Day. The second round of attacks planned to kill millions more. With the life of every human and alien on the Moon hanging in the balance, the Moon's chief security officer Noelle DeRicci races to discover the identity of the masterminds behind the attacks before it's too late. Desperate to find answers, DeRicci turns to Retrieval Artist Miles Flint and Detective Bartholomew Nyquist for the kind of help only Flint and Nyquist can provide.

The Possession of Paavo Deshin: A Retrieval Artist Short Novel

All of his short life, Paavo Deshin has seen ghosts. The same two ghosts who have now approached him on the school playground, ghosts who look older and actually smell bad. Paavo’s cry for help brings the authorities, a few lawyers, and Retrieval Artist Miles Flint, who learns some secrets about the ghosts - and about Paavo’s parents. This short standalone science fiction novel in the Retrieval Artist series received a Special Mention from the prestigious international UPC contest.

Masterminds: Anniversary Day Saga, Book 8 (Retrieval Artist Universe)

The fate of the Alliance hangs in the balance as the masterminds behind the Anniversary Day bombings trigger the final stages of a plan decades in the making. A plan that will bring about the total destruction of every dome on the Moon.

Vigilantes: Anniversary Day Saga, Book 6 (Retrieval Artist Universe)

The looming threat of another attack spurs the moon’s chief security officer, Noelle DeRicci, to uncover the identity of the masterminds behind the Anniversary Day bombings before they strike again....

The Recovery Man's Bargain: A Retrieval Artist Short Novel

Hadad Yu "recovers" things for a living. Things, not people, not animals. Things. Until he gets in trouble and must work for the alien Gyonnese. They want a person to answer for her crimes, and they want to use Yu to get her. He reluctantly agrees, and sets off events that will change his life and the lives around him forever.

Can the fate of a forgotten starbase hold the key to the moon’s survival? Long before the Anniversary Day bombings brought the moon to its knees, a far-flung starbase became the testing ground for a diabolical plan: the annihilation of every human inhabitant by an army of clones.

While survivors search for missing loved ones and the rich and powerful set plans in motion to capitalize on the Moon's misfortune, one ruthless man vows to uncover those responsible for the attacks on the Moon. Luc Deshin, the most feared man in Armstrong, knows all too well the bombings could have killed the wife and son he loves more than life itself. To protect his family, Deshin immerses himself in a criminal network he fought long and hard to leave behind.

Diving into the Wreck: Diving Universe, Book 1

Boss loves to dive historical ships, derelict spacecraft found adrift in the blackness between the stars. Sometimes she salvages for money, but mostly she's an active historian. She wants to know about the past--to experience it firsthand. Once she's dived the ship, she'll either leave it for others to find or file a claim so that she can bring tourists to dive it as well. It's a good life for a tough loner, with more interest in artifacts than people.

City of Ruins: Diving Universe, Book 2

Boss, a loner, loved to dive derelict spacecraft adrift in the blackness of space...But one day, she found a ship that would change everything - an ancient Dignity Vessel - and aboard the ship, the mysterious and dangerous Stealth Tech. Now, years after discovering that first ship, Boss has put together a large company that finds Dignity Vessels and finds "loose" stealth technology. Following a hunch, Boss and her team come to investigate the city of Vaycehn, where 14 archeologists have died exploring the endless caves below the city.

Skirmishes: Diving Universe, Book 4

The answers Captain Jonathan "Coop" Cooper and the crew of the Ivoire seek lie in the Boneyards. But an encounter from Coop's recent past shows up to haunt him, an encounter he never told Boss about, an encounter that could threaten her future, his life, and the fragile peace between the Alliance and the Empire.

Boneyards: Diving Universe, Book 3

Rusch's popular character Boss returns in a whole new adventure, one that takes her far outside her comfort zone, to a sector of space she's never seen before. Searching for ancient technology to help her friends find answers to the mystery of their own past, Boss ventures into a place filled with evidence of an ancient space battle, one the Dignity Vessels lost. Meanwhile, the Enterran Empire keeps accidentally killing its scientists in a quest for ancient stealth tech.

Angles of Attack: Frontlines, Book 3

The alien forces known as the Lankies are gathering on the solar system's edge, consolidating their conquest of Mars and setting their sights on Earth. The far-off colony of New Svalbard, cut off from the rest of the galaxy by the Lanky blockade, teeters on the verge of starvation and collapse. The forces of the two Earth alliances have won minor skirmishes but are in danger of losing the war.

No Time Like the Past: The Chronicles of St. Mary, Book 5

Jodi Taylor’s best-selling series The Chronicles of St. Mary is back with a bang…St. Mary’s has been rebuilt, and it’s business as usual for the history department. But first there’s the little matter of a 17th-century ghost that only Mr. Markham can see. Not to mention the minor inconvenience of being trapped in the Great Fire of London…and an unfortunately timed comfort break at Thermopylae, leaving the fate of the Western world hanging in the balance.

Publisher's Summary

Forensic anthropologist Aisha Costard has been summoned to Mars to examine skeletal remains recently discovered beneath a building erected by the Disty aliens. The bones belong to a human woman who vanished 30 years ago with her children. She is believed to have been one of the Disappeared, outlaws wanted for crimes against alien civilizations.

To investigate the mystery of the skeleton, Aisha turns to Retrieval Artist Miles Flint. Following the trail back three decades and seeking the whereabouts of the victim's missing children, Miles discovers a deadly secret that could threaten the stability of the entire solar system.

What the Critics Say

"Here's Rusch's genius: She doesn't confine herself to the rules of any one genre. She does world-creation and social criticism like the best sci-fi writers; she creates crime stories that would be best episodes on Law & Order or CSI; and she creates stories of human relationships that rank her with the finest character writers working today." (Orson Scott Card)

I enjoy the RA books, but don't think of them as particularly special. Certainly fine entertainment with interesting enough ideas. However, this one seemed to push a bit out of the normal comfort zone, and I enjoyed it more.

Jay Snyder turns in another great performance; to bad the story is not up to snuff.

This story took the politics to far, I seriously lost interest in this story many times. I feel like there is very little action and entirely to much explanation and whining. This is not why I have been reading these books.

I will now be taking a break from reading the Retrieval Artist series for awhile, it looks like the next book in the series may have more action and less politics so I will eventually listen to/read it, but it wont be anytime soon.

These are detective stories in space. No great strain on the brain matter and some gaping holes in the plot. I felt that I made a mistake buying the entire set after the first one thinking that the author was going to build on that story. She didn't really, The characters continue on with a series of detective stories that are not especially thrilling. I listened to them all and cannot say that I was inspired, but I enjoyed them for what they were, fairly bland. I wish we had 1/2 stars, these books only deserve three and half, the four is misleading but three would have been too low.

The book might have worked for me with a different reader. It interweaves threads from the lives of different people on different planets in different positions of society; you never quite know where the focus will end up, and that might have been interesting. But I couldn't get past hours and hours of having minute details narrated without irony, without much of an arc, and with too-long pauses between sentence fragments that acquired a seriousness the narrative doesn't always have. Women's voices came in a choice of breathy alto or whiny falsetto; in a book largely inhabited by female characters, none of them sounded like a real person when speaking.
I don't know whether this is just a personal preference or a true failing - so take the trouble of listening to the sample, imagine a few hours of that same tone of voice applied to things far less grave, and then decide.

The characters lack depth. The living situations are not explained and why is a man narrating a book where 2 of the 3 leads are women? His voice left me confused too often, especially since one of the women was called Scott.

Did not finish the book. I like her new series about Space Diving but not this series.

I hesitate writing a negative review, but this is the first series I've audibly complained to while listening.

For what it's worth, I love Peter Hamilton, Alistair Reynolds, S.A. Corey, Dan Simmons, China Mieville and so many others.

This series is pure fantasy written in the future. If you are looking to find the polar opposite of hard SF, this is your cup of tea. It reminds me of Kirk-era Star Trek writing.

Would you ever listen to anything by Kristine Kathryn Rusch again?

Probably not.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

This is an ambiguous question that is difficult to answer.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Dissapointment.

There were simply too many unbelievable machinations I was required to accept. I'm not speaking of the "Somewhat unrealistic" flavour, rather it's of the "Are you f'in kidding me?" variety.

I'll save specific instances so as not to ruin anyone else's enjoyment of the book. Needless to say, the chances of the world the main characters live in coming to fruition are smaller than me spontaneously changing genders.

The main characters are decent enough, but so many of the powerful, ruling-class characters that make their way into the stories lead me to believe they are timid pre-teens with sub-50 IQ's transferred into older hosts.

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